AK@adachika192@hcommons.social
The BBC visits the Korean survivors of the Hiroshima bomb (BBC, 2025-08-04)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp8zlwd3e42o
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The devastation wrought by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki … has been well-documented over the past eight decades.
Less well-known is the fact that about 20% of the immediate victims were Koreans.
Korea had been a Japanese colony for 35 years when the bomb was dropped. An estimated 140,000 Koreans were living in Hiroshima at the time - many having moved there due to forced labour mobilisation, or to survive under colonial exploitation.
Those who survived the atom bomb, along with their descendants, continue to live in the long shadow of that day – wrestling with disfigurement, pain, and a decades-long fight for justice that remains unresolved.
"No-one takes responsibility," says Shim Jin-tae, an 83-year-old survivor. "... America never apologised. Japan pretends not to know. Korea is no better. … we're left alone."